A'int No Atmosphere

The reason why Kevin was advised to hold on tightly became apparent almost immediately.  The vertical pole to which he was hanging on to, once clear of the floor, took a ninety degree bend turn and became a handrail.  This however was not the reason.

The actual reason was due to the abrupt shift in gravity; from some to none.  The other thing that there was none of was mostly everything.  All Kevin could see was the floor (or wall or ceiling) with the rail leading off in both directions.  The rest was black, vast, foreboding with twinkly bits in it.

'What the..?' yelped Kevin as his legs flailed around ineffectually.

Kara had flipped a panel open and was firmly bashing randomly flashing keys, 'Stupid...bloody...Ah, that's better.'

There was a shushing noise as a hatch slid across the hole they had recently emerged from.

'That's better.' She added.

'We're in...we're in...' stuttered Kevin

'Space.  Yes, I know.'

'But we're...' Kevin's free hand gestured towards his mouth.

'Breathing.  Yes.  This,' she bangs on the floor/wall giving a hollow clunking noise in response,'is a space ship.  One fortunately with a force field.  It is keeping the air in.'

'I thought they were used to stop bullets and stuff?'

'They were originally designed for that, but then it was discovered that you could build a much cheaper space ship if it wasn't airtight.  You know - no airlocks and spacesuits and all of that pallaver.'

'The pallaver that keeps you alive?'

'The only important thing was the engine.  If you had airlocks, space suits and pressurization and all that jazz and a non-working engine then you would be just as dead a ship with just a force field and a non-working engine.'

Several of the small dots now appeared to be moving.  Not just moving, but moving towards Kara and Kevin at fast rate.

'Hold on,' cried Kara as hundreds of small bits of space ship looking debris bounced along the hull.

Kevin wrapped himself around the handrail the best he could as several items of the junk bashed off him.  Fotunately his hold held.  A massive chunk of mass the size of a medium sized detatched house followed the smaller debris, however this was at a further and safer distance away from the space ship.  It was clearly meticallic, sparks flashed all over it and parts were on fire.  It looks like someone had ripped a cash machine right out of the wall of a bank.

'What's that?' asked Kevin suspiciously.

Kara mumbled something.

'Sorry, didn't quite catch that?'

'It was the engine.'

'Nice.  Open the door, while we can still breath.'

'I can't.  The way back has gone now.  I had to cut the link.'

'This is just getting better and better.  Why did you cut off our only way back?  We could've gone back.'

'If we had we would be dead by now.  We were being followed.'

'Really?'

'C'mon,' replied Kara sprightly.

Starts Here

© Copyright 2010 Paul Phillips